


Just Holding on For Something Great

by DuchessKitty16



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Best Friends, Best friends in a band, Childhood Friends, F/M, Gen, Local band trying to make it big, M/M, Santa Monica, Skateboarding, Venice California
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 04:10:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12380625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DuchessKitty16/pseuds/DuchessKitty16
Summary: Steve and Louis have been best friends since they were kids. They’ve seen each other through good times, family dramas, bad haircuts, first loves, first heartbreaks, and all of the milestones that make up the bonds of friendship. The BFF roommates share a ramshackle cottage in Venice Beach, CA, and a large cat named Smoky. They also have a band with their friends Ed and Niall, and while they dream of making it big, the reality is that they’re just a semi-popular local band that plays gigs in the Santa Monica bar scene a few times a month.Steve is getting engaged, moving in with his girlfriend and moving on with his new life. Everything seems to be changing fast; Louis isn’t sure he’s ready to handle growing up and being the adult he’s been so good at avoiding becoming.Will Louis finally buckle down and finish his degree and get a job that doesn’t require waiting tables? Will he finally get up the nerve to ask the cute guy that comes to his coffee shop everyday and to all of their shows, out on a date? And when an unexpected opportunity lands in the band’s lap, will the 4 friends be able to capitalize on it and finally get the big break that they’ve wanted for so long?





	Just Holding on For Something Great

**Author's Note:**

> This fic represents a bunch of firsts for me:  
> It was my first Reverse Bang; my first time collaborating with an artist; my first time incorporating art works into a written story.  
> There's a Spotify playlist that goes along with this fic, I hope you enjoy it and that it enhances your reading.  
> Special thanks to my beta Chris, for once again stepping in at the last minute and being a great proofreader. Any remaining errors are entirely my fault.
> 
> I loved this experience and I loved working with my artist, nims. I would happily do it again! Thank you nims, for drawing something that inspired me, and for letting me bounce ideas off of you.  
> Please enjoy our little story about best friends.

[Spotify playlist for this story...](https://open.spotify.com/user/1256133734/playlist/1d3uPeKK0p1EDu13FKVqEZ)

 

**Just Holding On For Something Great**

 

Louis turned his key in the lock of the back door of the tiny cottage that he called home. It was located on a narrow, but crowded street off of Pacific Avenue in Venice Beach, California. He shared the 700 square foot house with his best friend and bandmate Steve. It was nothing more than a glorified beach shack, with crappy insulation, a leaky roof, and poorly working plumbing. The interior was all wood – planks paneling the walls and ceiling that he and Steve had painted white to try and brighten up the tiny space; pine floors that were original and had seen better days, but they were polished and clean, providing a certain charm to the small space. Louis loved this little house and he knew how lucky he was to be living in it. It was on a great street, located in the heart of Venice Beach. It was close enough to the beach and the boardwalk and all of the other touristy stuff to be fun; a short walk to the pizza place on Pacific that Louis managed. But it was also in a residential neighborhood near the elementary school and the off-leash dog park; it was quiet, friendly, and welcoming. The rent was also ridiculously affordable, split between he and Steve, and in the current economy and crazy real estate market of Venice, Louis knew that their landlord Marc was giving them an incredibly nice deal. Good thing that Marc was Steve’s uncle; they could take advantage of his generosity because Steve was family, and Marc’s favorite nephew.

Louis noticed immediately as he walked into the small, sunny, westward facing kitchen that he was alone in the house. When you were only working with a space this small, you instinctively knew if there was another human breathing somewhere within it. So there was no Steve, but there was at least another mammal to keep Louis company; currently snoozing on the couch, in the form of Steve’s large, gray Maine Coon cat, Smoky Lonesome.

Louis slowly sat on the couch, careful to not disturb Smoky. Smoky lifted his head as Louis nestled into the cushions and shot him an annoyed look anyway, before standing up and stretching his long feline body, and then settling himself back down, this time on Louis’ lap. Smoky nudged his large, fluffy head against Louis’ hand, trying to get Louis to pet him.

“Okay Smoky, I get the hint. You are such a little demanding thing, aren’t you? You belong to Steve, not me. I don’t know why you like me so much – I barely tolerate you.” Louis said those last four words with a smile, and from Smoky’s purrs, it was obvious that the cat didn’t believe him and knew that Louis had a soft spot in his heart for the giant hairball.

“Do you miss Steve? Is that it? Did your dad abandon you again for his _GIRLFRIEND_?” Louis cupped Smoky’s large and handsome head and scratched behind both of his ears. The cat stretched his head up towards Louis, closing his eyes in contentment and purring even more loudly.

“Yeah, I feel you Smokes. I feel a little abandoned too. But don’t worry sweet boy, you’ll always have me to keep you company.”

Louis offered reassuring pats to Smoky’s head, and wished he could reassure himself in the same way. But in fact Louis had been feeling more and more anxious over the past few months as Steve had spent most of his time with his girlfriend. Louis didn't begrudge either of them wanting to spend all the time they could with each other, but Louis did sort of feel like he was slowly losing his best friend. Louis hasn’t had a boyfriend for almost two years, and even when he was actively dating, no one and nothing ever seemed very serious. He hasn’t really ever been in love, but Louis knew that he was only 25 and there was still plenty of time to find love. He definitely felt like he has to find himself a little more first.

****************************************************

Steve and Louis have been friends since they were kids taking skateboarding lessons together at the YMCA in Huntington Beach. Louis was 8 and Steve was 11 when they initially met. Steve was a painfully shy kid whose mother had signed him up for the skateboarding class because it was the only thing that he did that was outdoors, and she wanted her son to come out of his shell and make some new friends that shared his same interests. Steve noticed Louis the minute he walked into the YMCA, where a group of boys around his age and one girl, stood in a cluster around this small, energetic boy with caramel brown hair, shaped in a bowl cut who was telling what seemed to be a hilarious story, judging by the way the rest of the group of kids were smiling and laughing with him. Steve found himself drawn to the group of kids, his usual shyness and apprehension around new people pushed back by the stronger need to know this boy and hear the story he was telling.

As Steve approached the group, the enigmatic boy in the center saw him and waved hello. “Hey, how are you? Come here, I’m just getting to the good part of the story.” The boy grinned; his smile exposing that one of his front baby teeth was missing. Steve smiled back and the seeds of a deep friendship were sewn.

Although they grew up a few towns apart on the California coast, all through their pre-teen and teen years, Louis and Steve developed a close bond that had formed into something closer to a brotherhood than a friendship. They had always been there for each other, through good times and bad; through family strifes and glories, through bad haircuts and acne, through break-ups and budding romances, through Louis’ coming out, and through the struggle they both had to deal with when their mothers battled cancer within a few years of each other.

It didn’t matter that Steve and Louis and their two families were very different. Steve was rich, and Louis decidedly was not. Steve was the youngest of three and both his sister and brother were a lot older than him and away in a boarding school and at college respectively, so Steve was basically raised like an only child. Louis on the other hand was the oldest of five; he had four younger sisters that he found annoying, but was also fiercely protective of. Louis’ house was always too loud, too crowded, too confining. That’s probably why Louis was so bombastic and expressive; it was the only way for him to get noticed in his family. Louis’ mother and stepdad Mark tried to give him as much space as they could, turning their small den into a bedroom just for him, with a daybed and a desk with an old computer to use for his school work. His four sisters shared a bedroom that had two sets of bunkbeds. There was only one bathroom for the family of 7, and Louis felt like he never got any time in there.

Louis loved going over to and staying at Steve’s house. There was always lots of food; whatever their hearts desired, and Steve had a huge bedroom all to himself.  Pretty much from the very beginning of their friendship, almost every weekend Louis could be found at Steve’s House. They’d skateboard through Steve’s posh neighborhood, build complicated blanket forts in the Aoki’s large tv room, with its huge sectional couch that Louis and Steve would lie on in their sleeping bags, watching cartoons and movies and eating as much junk food as they could stomach.

The Aoki house itself was very large, with sprawling lawns perfect for playing soccer and roughhousing on, and a pool that got a lot of use, especially as Steve grew more confident and made more friends as he got to junior high and high school. But Louis was always the number one friend and Steve’s best confidant. The two friends shared all of their hopes and fears; all of their dreams, joys, and especially sadness and tears. Their friendship had no conditions; they were loyal and there for each other, no matter the circumstance.

Louis never met his biological father, or at least he didn’t remember him. The man had left him and his teenage mother when he was only about a year old. Louis’ mom had married Mark Tomlinson when Louis was almost 3, and Mark had adopted him right away. Louis’ birthday was Christmas Eve, and even as Mark and his mom added Lottie, Felicite, Daisy and Phoebe into their family, Mark always managed to make Louis feel special; making sure to always make just as big a deal of his birthday as they did on Christmas the next day. When Louis turned 14 he came out to his parents. It was Christmas morning, and all Louis had wanted for his birthday, besides a new skateboard deck from Sk8mafia, was to finally be honest with his mom and dad about the feelings he was having and about his sexuality. He’d made the decision to tell them after Christmas breakfast was over and the girls were all in the living room busy watching Christmas cartoons. Mark’s reaction to Louis coming out was not what Louis had expected. Mark lost his mind; he yelled at Louis and called him an ungrateful son. Jay defended Louis but didn’t really comment on her son’s revelation. Mark stormed out of the house and left Louis and Jay stunned, sitting in the kitchen.

When Mark came back to their house late that Christmas night he was still angry, and more than a little intoxicated. Tears of anger streamed down Mark’s face as he railed at Louis, telling him that the lifestyle that Louis had chosen would lead him to becoming a drug-addicted hustler who sold his body. Louis couldn’t understand why Mark was saying these awful things to him, and why his mother wasn’t saying anything on his behalf. Louis ran into his room and threw some clothes, underpants, and his iPod into his backpack and grabbed his brand new skateboard. The last thing he said to Mark on his way out the door was, “Why do you hate me so much?”.

Louis went straight to Steve’s that night; it took him over an hour to skate there. The Aokis welcomed him without questions, and Steve’s mom only asked if it was okay that she call Jay to let her know that Louis was there and was safe. Steve took Louis to his room and let him cry for bit, only sitting beside him with his arm wrapped around the younger boy’s shoulder. Once Louis was cried out and feeling calmer, he told Steve everything; his coming out, Mark leaving and coming back drunk, the horrible things that he’d said. Steve told Louis to forget what Mark said or felt; he told Louis to remember that he was an amazing person and an amazing friend. Steve made sure that Louis knew that it didn’t matter to him what sexual orientation Louis was or how he identified; he was Steve’s best friend, and that would never change.

“But Steve, what if I lose my family? What if I never find someone special? Anybody who will love me for me? What am I going to do?” Louis sobbed and tucked his face into Steve’s chest as Steve wrapped his arms around his friend.

“I’ll be your family. And of course you’re going to find someone special to love you! How could someone not love you? It may not happen right away, hell, you’re not even in high school yet. But it’ll happen for you. You’ve gotta just hold on. Hold on until something great comes along.” Louis let himself be soothed by Steve’s words and the comfort of his warm hug.

Louis spent the remaining part of his winter break with Steve’s family. When Steve’s mom drove Louis home he was greeted by a sad but relieved Jay. She told Louis that she had kicked Mark out and that they were getting a divorce. She apologized for letting Mark say those terrible things to Louis and she promised him that she’d do everything in her power to never make Louis feel like he was less of a person than he was. She wanted to make sure that Louis understood that her and Mark getting a divorce had nothing to do with him; she had felt resentment and anger towards Mark for awhile and had already threatened to leave him once because of his drinking. Louis and her daughters were the most important people in her life and she would always do what she could to love them, protect them and put them first.

************************************************************************

One of the things that Louis and Steve did as kids, besides skateboard, swim, and play video games, was play music together. Whenever they hung out, Louis was always singing. He loved to sing anything and everything from Green Day and Foo Fighters to Kylie Minogue and P!nk. Louis took piano lessons from an elderly woman named Martha Swan who lived in one of the rundown apartments across the street from his house. The lessons were free because his mom drove Martha to her doctor’s appointments at the hospital where Jay worked as a nurse, and Jay also did her grocery shopping for her. In exchange, Martha Swan gave Louis and Lottie piano lessons and sometimes did baby sitting if Louis couldn’t do it. Steve took violin lessons until he was 14; it was an Aoki family tradition. Steve’s sister, brother and all of his cousins had taken violin or viola lessons. And while Steve didn’t play the violin when he and Louis hung out, he was able to strum out tunes on a guitar that he’d borrowed from his brother’s room, while Louis sang and played melodies that he’d memorized and practiced off the radio, on an old keyboard of Steve’s. By the time Louis was a senior in high school and Steve was a sophomore at UCLA,  they had played enough music with each other to know that it was something that they wanted to do for real and not just holed away in Steve’s bedroom.

Now the two best friends not only lived together, they were also in a band with their friends Ed and Niall. Louis met Niall, a jovial Irishman, when he began taking classes at Santa Monica College four years before. He played the bass and a little guitar, and always brought positive energy to the band. Niall was currently a PE teacher at a public middle school in Santa Monica. Ed was a quiet guy that Steve had met through mutual friends. Ed was a musical savant who played about ten different instruments, but his passion was the guitar, which he played for their band and lent his sweet voice to share lead vocals with Louis. Louis played piano and wrote a large portion of the lyrics for their original songs. Steve was the glue that sort of held them all together; he was the oldest and the calmest, and could always be counted on to be the voice of reason whenever the guys disagreed about something. Steve played percussion, wrote a lot of their melodies and arranged the stuff they performed. He had a vast set of electronics that he used magically to enhance their music. Steve was part DJ, part conductor, part song enhancer. He was responsible for their unique sound which was a combination of pop, punk and dance.

For the first year that the four friends played together, they didn’t have a name for their band. Hundreds, maybe thousands of names had been thrown out over that first year but nothing seemed to stick. When they got their first paying gig, the guys knew that they had to get serious and come up with a moniker. So what did they do? They polished off a bottle of tequila one night while lounging on Ed’s deck, and in the morning Niall found a piece of paper on the coffee table, still soaked in the previous night’s spilled beer. On it was written in Niall’s hand - “ _Our band is called SEAFRONT”_ \- in bold blue sharpie. The four friends looked around at each other and shrugged their shoulders; that name would do. To this day, none of the guys could remember who came up with the name, but it didn’t matter, it was theirs.

**************************************************************

As Louis rode up to the front of their house on his bicycle, a still warm large pizza strapped to the back wheel, he could see Steve and his girlfriend, and maybe soon to be fiancé Tiernon, sitting on the swing on their small front porch, legs entangled and loving eyes only on each other. Louis didn’t want to admit that he was having a hard time with the fact that Steve had recently told Louis that he was going to ask Tiernon to marry him, after already being in a relationship for over five years. Louis wondered ~~feared?~~ how much longer Steve would remain his roommate; he already spent most of his nights over at Tiernon’s, and now with them probably about to be officially engaged, it was only a matter of time before they got a place of their own together. Louis wasn’t sure what he’d do when that inevitably happened; even though their rent was cheap, he couldn’t afford it on his own. The thought of finding another roommate to replace Steve was depressing and an annoying prospect. That was even if Steve’s uncle would let Louis stay at the house. He might have to find someplace totally new to live, and it depressed him to think about.

Louis never thought of himself as having a “Peter Pan Complex”, but he had to admit that he was uncomfortable with the fact that he and his best friend were getting older and growing apart as they made adult choices and followed different paths. Sure, Louis was working his way towards a music engineering degree at Santa Monica College, but he could only afford to take a couple of classes a semester, so the road to finally getting his degree was a long one. And at 25 Louis felt stuck. His life had fallen into a routine consisting of school, the band, and his two jobs - one as an assistant manager of a Venice Beach pizza joint called Carlo’s, and the other as a barista at a Cafe Vita in Santa Monica near the pier. He hadn’t had a boyfriend since he and his high school sweetheart Justin had decided that they couldn’t do the long distance thing, after Justin decided to transfer from UCLA to a university in Massachusetts. Louis never went to bars anymore, unless you counted the ones that the band performed at. He hadn’t even had a casual hook-up with any guy in several months. There was one guy that hung out at his coffee shop and came to a lot of the band’s gigs, but Louis didn’t even know more than his name that he got to write on his to-go coffee cup; he certainly didn’t have his phone number to call him for a date. Louis wasn’t even positive that the guy was gay, so it wasn’t really a sure thing.

Steve looked away from Tiernon as Louis came up the walk and climbed the two stairs to their small porch.

“Hey Lou. Guess what?” Steve asked, all smiles.

“What?” Louis looked at the couple’s faces, both beaming with joy, and felt worry settle in his tummy.

“She said YES!” Steve crowed, while Tiernon stuck out her left hand to show off the quite large engagement ring that she was sporting.

“Wow.”, Louis hoped that he sounded more enthusiastic than he felt, “That’s some rock! Steve, I know your family has money but how on earth did you afford this?!” Louis stepped back realizing that asking that question was probably rude. Steve only shrugged, the smile didn’t leave his face as he looked from Louis to Tiernon.

“It’s my grandmother’s engagement ring actually. Or was. When I told my mom that I wanted to ask Tiernon, she gave me the ring and said that she had always planned on giving it to either my brother or me, whoever got married first. Looks like I finally beat Kevin at something.” Steve laughed and then leaned forward to place a gentle kiss on Tiernon’s lips. Louis sighed. Was he jealous of their relationship? Was that why he was feeling so down about this event?

Steve broke into his thoughts by asking, “Hey, how was work?”

Louis rolled his eyes. “Not exciting or interesting in the least. But I come baring dinner. I’m just going to put it out on the table in the kitchen and you guys can grab a slice if you want.” Louis opened the screen door to their house, trying to balance the pizza and his backpack in one hand.

“What’s the mystery pizza this week? And why can’t you ever bring home salad or something healthy, Louis?” Tiernon called into the house.

Louis could practically hear the frown in her voice. Most times when Louis worked at the pizza place, there would inevitably be at least one or two orders that would turn out to be wrong or never picked up. These “garbage” pizzas could be any combination; he’d brought home quite a few that had very random toppings, the strangest ever being pineapple and anchovy. Louis still had nightmares about that one, but hey, free pizza, was free pizza, and he was a poor, struggling musician and student. He’d eat anything. Steve and Tiernon had followed him inside the house and Steve bent down to pick up and hold Smoky Lonesome, who was winding his way around Tiernon’s legs. She was allergic to cats, and it was as if Smoky knew that; he always rubbed against her whenever he could. Louis thought it was an act of protest against Steve's relationship, on Smoky’s part.

 “Tonight’s pizza is good old pepperoni. And sorry Tiernon, rarely do people mistakenly order salads at Fredo’s, if they order salads at all. But I’ll be sure to bring a salad back for you next time, okay?”

Tiernon nodded her approval and smiled. Louis knew that all her talk about salads and healthy food was a sham; Tiernon may have been a skinny model with gorgeous skin, but she ate like a 15 year old boy. Louis knew that she’d probably eat at least three slices of the pepperoni pizza that he set down on the kitchen table. Louis got down three plates from the cupboard and set two down next to the pizza box, and then opened the box and pulled two slices out for himself that he put on his plate.

 

As Louis walked into the living room, he looked around for the day’s mail and called out to Steve who had gone back out to the porch.

“Hey Steve, was there any mail today?”

“Yeah, I put it on top of the piano earlier.” Steve responded.

Louis sorted through the day’s mail as he chewed a bite of pizza. There were several pieces of junk mail, their electricity bill and two letters written in the sweet and cute handwriting of a small child. Louis smiled at the two smalls envelopes and slid them into his back pocket to read later. He knew they were from his youngest siblings, Doris and Ernie, the 5 year old twins that his mom had had with her new husband Dan, a nice handsome plumber that his mom had met six years ago on a blind date she was set up on by one of her coworkers at the hospital. His mom worked with the baby twins on their letters and writing even at their young age and encouraged them to send their oldest siblings cards, decorated sweetly by their chubby little hands, because Louis and his sister Lottie each lived on their own and needed the cheering up that a card from two 5 year olds could bring.

Although Louis was happy about the cards, he wasn’t happy to see that they still hadn’t heard back from the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce about the summer concert series that was starting up the following week. Louis had to resign himself that Seafront hadn’t made the cut to perform at one of the concerts this year.

Every summer, from the start of the Summer Solstice to the middle of August, the Santa Monica pier holds “Twilight Concerts” every Thursday and Friday. Most of the performers are up and coming, yet to be established acts, or B and C list artists who had once been moderately famous, but had passed their prime and were now left to play festivals, state fairs, and small venues. But every summer the organizers of the Twilight Concerts reserved a coveted Thursday night spot in August to showcase a local band. This gave the band exposure and it offered them a chance to be interviewed by the Los Angeles Times and granted them a spot on Ryan Seacrest’s national radio show. It was a huge deal for the band that was chosen each year. Past winners of the spot had gone on to get record deals and exposure on Spotify and Pandora.

It was one of Louis and Steve’s dreams for Seafront to be chosen as the local band to play the Twilight show. In April they had submitted a 20 minute recording of some of their songs, and a video showing one of their rehearsals in Niall’s garage. Louis just wanted to know once and for all if they were good enough. Louis sighed heavily as he sat down on the couch to finish eating his pizza, and to read his two cards from Doris and Ernest. He supposed they’d have to hear from the city soon enough.

After pizza, Steve brought out a bottle of fancy red wine that his dad had given him last year. He uncorked it and poured glasses for himself, Tiernon and Louis. They toasted to Steve and Tiernon’s engagement, and all three seemed to purposely avoid talking about the future. Louis hung out with the couple for another hour before turning in for the evening.

Once he’d brushed his teeth and changed into a pair of sleep shorts and an old t-shirt, Louis settled down into his bed and again thought about the fact that he was going to have to start looking for a new place to live. Even though Steve was hardly ever at their house anymore, technically Louis had never lived on his own. He was more than a little scared if he was being honest with himself. Louis decided right then that if he was going to have to make big changes in where and how he lived, he should go ahead and make changes across all aspects of his life. Starting with school; Louis made a promise to himself that he would take a full semester of classes so that he could finally finish his engineering degree. He decided that he should probably take some more education classes as well so that he can maybe get his teaching certificate in the state of California. He figured that he should be able to finish up his degree and certification within the year if he really focused; it meant that he’d have to pick up more night hours at both of his jobs to make ends meet. But by this time next year maybe he could get a job as a middle school music teacher for a steady income while he looked for work as a sound engineer.

The next morning Louis’ fears and trepidation lingered and he decided to call his mom. His mother Jay had always had a way of calming his nerves and making him see reason. As soon as he heard his mother’s soothing voice over the phone, Louis could feel almost half of the tension leave his body. He told her about Steve’s engagement and shared his fears and frustrations about his future. His mom offered for him to move back home, but Louis declined, telling her that he doesn’t want to be a burden to her, Jay’s husband Dan, and their 4 year old twins. Louis’ sisters Daisy and Phoebe were also still at home; Louis knew the atmosphere would be far too crowded for him, especially after only living with one person for so long.

Jay reminded him that they no longer lived in that shitty, little house in the Pico hood anymore. They have a lovely home in Pasadena with plenty of room; even if all 7 of her children were living at home there would still be enough space. Louis admitted to his mom that he felt a sort of sense of relief that if all else fails, he could go home again but, he needed to try and make his way forward on his own.

Two morning laters Louis checked his email on his phone. He sat up straighter in his bed and took a deep breath when he saw that he had mail from the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce. This was the email that would tell him whether or not the band had made it into the line-up for the concert series at the Pier. He opened the email and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before reading it.

The representative from the Chamber of Commerce thanked him for his submission, but said that unfortunately they had gone with another local band. They wished Seafront luck for the future. The rejection was like a punch in the gut to Louis. He dreaded telling the guys, especially Steve. Niall would probably shrug his shoulders and say it wasn’t meant to be, while Ed would probably know people in the band that won the spot and be happy for them. Only Steve would feel the pain of the missed opportunity like Louis did.

*****************************************************************

When the band first started, the only gigs that they could book were the open mic nights that the coffee shop where Louis worked held two Thursdays a month. The band’s sound, an interesting mix of pop, punk, electronic dance and rock, wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But their sound was kinetic and engaging; the guys really wanted to appeal to a wide audience. Gradually as their popularity built over a couple of years , they outgrew the small coffee shop; Louis and Ed occasionally still played there on their own every once in awhile. The guys now have a standing gig, one Friday and one Saturday a month at an old pub in Santa Monica called “The Wayfarer”. It’s a divey, old bar whose clientele is mostly made up of crusty boat mechanics that work nearby at the pier and retired seaman who’ve now taken up day-drinking as a career.  Over the past several years, young hipsters have taken over the bar in the late evenings, because it’s a good place to get a PBR and a cheap shot of whiskey. So old men with beards and faded tattoos, now mix and mingle with a younger crowd. It’s still primarily tattooed men with beards; but their hair is less gray, their skin is less wrinkled, and the ink of their tattoos is fresher and more vivid.

Each Friday and Saturday the Wayfarer fills up with millennials taking space at the bar, and filling the booths and seats scattered about the room. They come to hear the live music that’s played on the stage in the back corner of the pub. Louis and Steve’s band is one of the most popular and probably draws in the biggest crowd on the nights they play. That’s pretty much the only reason that the owner of the Wayfarer, a scraggily and weathered man named Rusty, keeps letting them play there because they bring in the paying customers, but he’s made it clear that he hates their music. He thinks it’s rubbish, what with Steve’s DJ equipment, Ed’s four thousand different stringed instruments, Louis’ keytar that he plays ironically, and Niall’s general personality. They’d originally gotten the gig because Steve’s father, who owns a few Japanese restaurants in and around Los Angeles, is an old friend of Rusty’s, but for the life of them, the guys had never figured out how Rusty and Mr. Aoki could’ve ever met, much less become friends. They were completely different types of men.

The band plays a mixture of covers and songs that they’ve written themselves. All of the guys have proven to be good songwriters, and while Louis and Ed contribute the most, each of them have gotten a chance to add at least one of their songs to the band’s regular set rotation. The band also plays a lot of covers to keep Rusty happy, and because they’re crowd pleasers; a variety ranging from old Rolling Stones, to A$AP Rocky. The hipsters in the crowd especially like when the band plays “ironic” covers of pop songs from the 80s and 90s; especially if it’s something that they’ve sung karaoke to.

The band does have one tradition that Louis and Steve inadvertently started one late evening, long after their second set had finished and they were packing their stuff away as the bar was close to closing. Niall was teasing Ed about a very cute redhead who had danced and stood in front of Ed all night, and clearly wanted to have his children and wouldn’t the two of them make the cutest babies with the gingeriest of hair. Steve immediately perked up and pointed to Louis, who knew immediately what he was going to ask.

“No.” Louis shot Steve a look of annoyance.

“Come on, Louis! Please? For me? Just for old times’ sake?”  Steve batted his eyelashes as coquettishly as possible.

“What?” Niall asked curiously.

“When we were teenagers, Louis used to love that Amy Winehouse song “Valerie” and would sing it all the time. And the way you were talking about Ed and that chick’s ginger hair made me think of it.” Steve explained.

Louis finished zipping up the last of the bags holding his keyboard and their amps and sighed dramatically as he sank heavily down onto the floor of the stage. Ed and Niall both laughed at him and started chanting “Sing it!” “Sing it!” at the top of their lungs until Rusty threw them a murderous look and made the cutting motion across his throat.

Louis looked around the pub. There was only one table of patrons left; a 5-top with two young women and three guys who looked to be in their early or mid 20s, who were sitting around finishing the last of their pints and talking. Louis recognized one of the guys as a customer at the coffee shop; a gorgeous guy with chocolate curls, pretty green eyes, and dimples when he smiled. Louis had noticed him at their shows before too but hadn’t ever gotten up the nerve to talk to him. Louis thought his name might be Harry, but didn’t really want to embarrass himself in front of the guy before he even had a chance.  But the table that the guy was sitting at weren’t paying attention to the band or anyone else in the bar so Louis thought maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal to sing a little bit of the song. Still he hesitated.

“I just put away my keys guys. Sorry.”

“Here.”, Ed handed Louis the guitar that he still had out, “You can play along on this as you sing. I know you know the chords to the song.” Ed smiled and winked.

“He sure does. It was one of the first songs he learned on guitar.” Steve confirmed.

“Steve! I’m going to kill you, you traitor.” Louis grumbled with a frown but took the guitar from Ed anyway. He sat on the edge of the stage and put the guitar on his lap, placing his fingers on the correct key frets. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and started singing a Capella.

_“Well sometimes I go out by myself, and I look across the water._

_And I think of all the things, what you’re doing, and in my head I paint a picture._

_Since I’ve come on home, and my body’s been a mess. And I miss your ginger hair and the way you like to dress. Won’t you come on over, stop making a fool outta me. Why don’t you come on over, Valerie?”_

As Louis sang more of the song his confidence grew; he strummed along with simple chords on the guitar. Ed and Niall joined in halfway through with some sweet and simple harmonies, and by the last note, the handful of people left in the pub were on their feet cheering. Louis felt himself blush when the cute guy with the curly hair stood up enthusiastically with his friends and let out a long , slow whistle, and shouted “That was beautiful”. Louis smiled at the handsome boy with his riot of soft, brown, curly and wavy hair that was pushed away from his face with a pair of sunglasses. He truly had one of the best smiles that Louis had ever seen, those dimples!, and Louis felt something flutter from his heart down to his stomach.

After that night, a custom was born. Every month or so, at a randomly chosen show, Louis and the guys would end their second set with “Valerie”. It wasn’t always the Amy Winehouse track; the guys prided themselves on finding all kinds of songs titled _“Valerie”_ that they could learn to play and sing. One week Louis would start singing the Steve Winwood classic; another month Niall would discover some 1980s Valerie tracks by Quarterflash, Marshall Crenshaw, and the Greg Kihn band, that he’d bring to rehearsal for them to learn; Ed taught himself how to play the song by The Weeknd on guitar and wowed everyone in the audience with his solo performance. Steve brought Valerie tracks from The London Souls, Reel Big Fish and Young Rival. The four friends would try to outdo each other by finding more and more obscure “Valerie” songs that they could add to their repertoire.

They kept their fans on their toes trying to never play the same “Valerie” two months in a row, no matter how adamant some of their most ardent fans got with requesting one or another specifically. Because that was one of the best outcomes from this novelty – through word of mouth the band’s fan base had grown exponentially. They started getting extra gigs at other bars and small clubs in the area. It was great for the guys to see their loyal standby fans that had been coming to see them from the beginning, mixed with the new crop of admirers. The reaction to their music was what the guys had always wanted, but staying popular and continuing to grow their fanbase meant writing more original music and not relying on covers as much. Steve threw himself into writing and was contributing a lot more new music that had a more electronic or EDM edge to it. Ed wasn’t sure how much he liked it, but dutifully played it anyway, and Niall seemed a little overwhelmed by their growing popularity. The band was a hobby; a weekend lark for him. He wasn’t sure if he had time or energy to focus more of his attention to it. Ed worked as a sound engineer for Capitol Records and could get the band access to recording space after-hours. Steve and Louis were pushing them to bite the bullet and decide on 10 to 15 tracks that they could record and put out as a CD and digital download. It was all about the four friends finding the time to do this and balancing their “real lives”. They needed the right push and motivation to do this. That’s why Louis thought getting the show at the Pier was the answer, and one of the main reasons why he was so disappointed that they hadn’t been chosen.

* * *

Louis got home after working the morning rush at the coffee shop and headed to the bathroom to take a quick shower, which he hadn’t had a chance to do before work because he’d accidentally slept through his 4:00am alarm. When he walked back into the living room, smelling fresh from the lemon verbena soap he used and hair still slightly damp at the ends, he sat at the piano and played a few scales to limber his fingers up. He and Steve had found this old upright piano at a yard sale years before. Steve had haggled the man selling it into practically giving it to them for free if they transported it off his lawn that day. They’d borrowed Steve’s dad’s truck and hauled it into the tiny Venice house and beamed at each other when the small piano fit perfectly in the space against the wall between the couch and the bookcase. As a teen during his lessons, Louis had learned how to tune pianos, and within hours of the piano finding its new home, Louis was playing a Brahms concerto on it.

These few years later and it still played wonderfully. After finishing his scales, Louis started playing a melody that had been kicking around his head for the past couple of months. He stood and lifted the lid of the piano bench that he was sitting on, grabbing a couple of pieces of blank sheet music and a mechanical pencil. He sat back down and put pencil to paper; starting to write out the notes to the melody in his head.

An hour later he sat back and stretched his back, hearing some of his vertebrae crack after having been hunched over the piano keys for so long. Smoky Lonesome, who had been sleeping on the arm of the couch closest to the piano, lifted his head as Louis stood up, and slowly blinked at him.  

“Smoky, I did it. I finally got that melody down on paper. It’s been swirling around inside me and it feels good to be able to look at it and have it make sense, you know?” Smoky only purred and blinked in reply and Louis smiled and lovingly petted his large, soft head, scratching under his chin for good measure.

Louis sighed and stretched his arms above his head again. He couldn’t believe he only had his cat to share this moment with. He knew he could call Ed and tell him; hell, Ed would probably come right over and help him finish writing the song within a couple of hours. But this song was special to Louis; he didn’t want to share the creation of it with another person. He almost didn’t want to play the song for anyone else but Steve, because the inspiration for it was so special. Louis  looked down at what he’d written on the sheet music page again. Getting the notes onto paper really did feel incredibly good. He sat down and started playing the melody again, this time trying out some of the lyrics that he had written a few weeks before, singing for no one other than the audience of one large, grey cat. The words that Louis had written to go along with the tune had first come to him while he sat in the hospital waiting room of UCLA Medical Center last year, while his mother had undergone a double mastectomy. Steve had brought his backpack and a change of clothes to the hospital, knowing that Louis would be staying there the whole time his mother was in surgery and recovery, as his step-dad and his older sisters took turns at home with the younger children. While looking for his contacts case, Louis had felt the spine of one of his writing notebooks at the bottom of his backpack and knew it would be the perfect distraction; a way to taking all of the fear and anxiousness and anger he felt, and putting it down on paper; turning it into something that he could control.

Louis poured his feelings out onto the pages of that notebook. His fear that the most beautiful person on the planet, his mom, would maybe die if the doctors weren’t able to cut all of the cancer out of her body. His anger at God or whatever higher being, for giving this horrible disease to not only  his mother but Steve’s mother not even a year before. Chizuru had survived her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, and Louis could only hope that Jay would do the same. His form of prayer was writing down the words that formed the poems that turned into the lyrics for the melody that he had just put to paper. So a year later,  Louis sat at his piano with his cat in his lap and started singing the song that he had written for his mom and Steve’s mom as a tribute to their survival and triumph in battle against the cancer that invaded their bodies.

“ _Wish that you could build a time machine…_ ”

***************************************************************

A few days later, Louis got up enough nerve to play the song for Steve. Louis had called it “Just Hold On” and he was really proud of it. After he finished playing it for Steve, he turned to find his best friend crying.

“Lou, it’s so fucking beautiful. You’ve gotta play it for the guys. Ed could come up with a guitar part easily for it and we could work it into our next gig in a couple of weeks.”

“I don’t know, Steve. I don’t know if I want to share this with anyone, except maybe our moms. And anyway, it’s a simple ballad which isn’t in the band’s style at all.”

“Okay okay, it’s your song, I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do. But will you allow me to fiddle with it a little? Can I play around with the arrangement? That way, even though it’s your song, it will have a little bit of me in it when we play it for mom and Jay?”

Louis smiled at Steve and pulled him into a hug. “Of course. I love that idea, buddy.”

 

************************************************************

Steve walked into the café just as the sun was getting lower in the sky, and Louis was finishing making the last espresso of his shift. Steve nodded at Louis with a smile and indicated that he was going to sit on one of the stools at the window near the entrance. Louis handed the cappuccino over to his customer with a smile. It was Harry, the adorable, well, smoking hot let’s be honest, guy that came into the coffee shop at least once a week, and went to a lot of Seafront’s gigs. Niall teasingly called Harry, “Louis’ #1 fan”, but Louis just thought that Harry was a sweet guy who likes their music, he wasn’t at all sure that Harry came to their shows just for him. Louis made small talk with Harry as he got busy making two 12oz frozen mochas for Steve and himself. Harry said goodnight and told Louis that he’d see him at the Wayfarer that weekend, and waved his goodbye as he walked backwards towards the door, flashing his cute dimples at Louis. A few minutes later, Louis was hanging his apron up and carrying the two frozen drinks over to his roommate who was looking at something on his phone. Steve pocketed his cell quickly as Louis walked up.

“Here ya go. Extra whip, just like you like it.” Louis handed the drink and a straw to Steve.

“So I see that Harry is coming to see you at the show this weekend…” Steve didn’t finish his sentence, only wiggled his eyebrows up and down as they exited the café and turned to head towards the end of the pier.

“He’s coming to see _Seafront_ on Saturday, yes.” Louis tried to hide his smile and failed miserably.

“No, it’s definitely _you_ he’s going to the show to see, not any of the rest of us.” Steve said in a teasing voice, nudging Louis’ shoulder.

“Okay okay enough of that. I maybe hope that Harry’s coming to see me, but I don’t want to get my hopes up, okay? Let’s drop this subject and talk about something, anything, else.” Louis could feel the blush on his cheeks.

As they sipped their coffees, the two best friends walked by all of the merchants who had tables and carts set up along the boardwalk, selling anything and everything from baskets made of seashells, to all sorts of colorful clothing, to a plethora of fried food choices. Steve and Louis talked about their work days and about their band’s upcoming gig at The Wayfarer that weekend. They both agreed that they should try to get in at least two more rehearsals before Saturday, but neither were sure that they’d be able to convince Ed and Niall to make the time in their schedules.

“Man, I’m worried that Ed and Niall aren’t taking our music or the band as serious as we are, Louis.” Steve lamented.

“I know.” Louis agreed reluctantly. “But I can’t imagine playing or making music with anyone else but them and you.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I just wish we could move forward from being just a band that plays covers and a few original songs at the local pub.” Steve sighed, as Louis chucked the last of his coffee into the trash can that they strolled by.

“Well, for our next gig why don’t we make an effort to only do our original songs in both sets? It would take some fine tuning of a few pieces, and we’d all have to commit to more practice time, but I think we could have a solid couple of sets of just our music, by the end of September.” Louis suggested.

“I’m all for that idea! I’m just not sure that either Niall or Ed will be into that level of commitment. The band is just a hobby for them.” Steve sighed.

Louis wasn’t sure how to reply. He would love for their band to become so successful that they were able to make a living from their music, but he was a realist. They were a slightly popular, local beach band. That sort of sounded like a hobby to him. Louis didn’t want to say that to Steve because he was so invested in their band and took their music very seriously. Steve was the main reason that they were as popular as they were locally; he booked most of their gigs and did their promotion. Louis wished that he could participate more with this piece of it, but he was already working two jobs and going to school - he was exhausted.

The two friends strolled along the boardwalk, enjoying the early evening sun and the fresh ocean breeze. The pier had its typical Friday night crowd and Louis felt like he was feeding off of their energy; he could feel his mood lightening. They stopped at a couple of food carts, where Steve bought some taffy  and Louis decided to get a corn dog for dinner, something he hadn’t indulged in since he was a kid.

Steve and Louis had reached the area of the pier that ended at a stage set up for the summer concert series held at the Santa Monica pier from late June through mid September. Men and women were running around setting up the stage for a concert that was happening later that night. Louis and Steve leaned against the wooden railing of the boardwalk and looked down to the beach about fifteen feet below where people were setting up blankets, beach chairs, and camp stools to enjoy the free concert that would start in just under an hour.

 

“Steve? It would’ve been so fucking cool if Seafront could’ve played one night on the Summer Series stage. Look at this crowd! It would be great if we could get this kind of exposure. It should’ve been us on that stage this summer.” Louis wistfully looked down at all of the families, couples old and young, groups of teens, friends laughing and having a wonderful time.

“But it’s definitely about who you know on the planning committee.” Steve reminded him.

“Maybe next year…” Louis let out a deep sigh.

“Yeah, maybe.” Steve responded; the doubt heavy in his voice.

* * *

 

The event that changes everything happens on a Wednesday evening in the last week of July.

Louis, Niall, Ed were sitting in Niall’s garage messing around with different chords to one of their songs, when Steve came running in through the door on the side of the garage.

“You guys! Nice Finger broke up!” Steve seemed out of breath like he had ran to Niall’s house instead of driven.

“Really? Man, I knew Eli and Tom were fighting but I didn’t think it was that bad.” Ed shook his head in disbelief, once again impressing Louis with how he seemed to know every single musician in Southern California.

“Shut up! Listen! They broke up! They’re not going to be able to play the Summer Series show tomorrow night!”

Louis sucked a breath in and stared at Steve. What did he mean? Was it possible that they might get to play in their place?

As if Niall had read his thoughts, he heard his friend question Steve. “So? Nice Finger breaking up and losing the Summer concert doesn’t mean that we’re going to get to play in their place. There must be at least a hundred other bands that are being considered as replacements.”

Louis was glad that Niall had said it; he was still too hurt about not getting chosen in the first place to want to get his hopes up. But Steve only looked at them with a huge grin on his face.

“There may be hundreds of bands that wanted the gig, but there’s only one band that Rusty Hagen likes enough to go to the Chamber of Commerce, which he’s a member of, and tell them to give us the job.” Steve crossed his arms with a satisfied smile on his face.

“No way!” Louis jumped in the air. “No fucking way! Seafront gets to play tomorrow night at the Pier?!” Louis slammed into Steve and wrapped his arms around his best friend in a fierce hug. Niall and Ed whooped and hollered with joy and quickly joined in the group hug.

“We get to play on the pier in front of thousands of people!” Ed cheered.

“We get to meet Ryan Seacrest!” Niall cackled gleefully.

Louis looked at his best friend Steve, who had been with him through thick and thin for almost 20 years and smiled, feeling tears prick the corner of his eyes.

“I get to play music that I wrote with my closest friends and share it with a whole new audience.” Louis whispered it just for Steve. “Thank you.”

“Why are you thanking me? You guys had just as much to do with this as I did.” Steve retorted.

Louis shook his head. “No, I know somehow this is all happening because of you. You’re our glue, Steve.” Louis hugged Steve again tightly.

“Okay guys! We’ve got to seriously figure out what 35 minute set we want to play for these folks. It’s gotta be all original music, don’t you agree?” Ed said as he headed back into the garage and grabbed his notebook and pen.

“Yeah, but I think we should definitely close with a “Valerie” cover, don’t you think, Louis? Steve? I mean, it’s become one of our signatures. It’s our brand.” Niall suggested.

“Absolutely,” Steve agreed, “and I also have an idea for the perfect song to open the show up.” Steve looked at Louis and winked. Louis felt heat flood his cheeks, realizing that Steve might’ve been talking about “Just Hold On”. He wasn’t sure he was ready for the world to hear this song. Was he?

************************************************************************************

 They were ready. Everything had come together as well as it could, considering they had only had a little over 24 hours to get things figured out and completed. Theirs families and friends had been told and were here in the audience ready to cheer them on; Rusty had done a surprisingly great job of promoting their unexpected windfall of this performance. As Louis and Steve had made their way through Santa Monica to do their sound check on the Pier stage, they had seen flyers plugging their performance, papered all over telephone and light poles all along the pier. The whole thing only succeeded in making Louis more nervous than he ever thought he could be.

So now here he was standing just off stage right, with Ed by his side, while Steve and Niall stood in the wings on the other side of the stage. Louis was with his best friends about to perform the most important 35 minutes of music in his life. But they were ready. Steve had pulled Louis aside just before they climbed the stairs to the stage and had reminded him that this opportunity was an unexpected gift. They shouldn’t look at it like this ‘make it or break it’ thing; they needed to just go out and play their music as if they were playing at the coffee shop like when they first started. No pressure and no expectations. Louis had been chanting those last five words over and over to himself for the last 10 minutes.

“No pressure and no expectations, right Ed?” Louis took Ed’s hand and gripped it tightly.

“Definitely no pressure, but I have an expectation. I expect for us to fucking kill it out there on that stage and blow everyone away, because we’re talented and we deserve tonight. We deserve it, Louis.” Ed squeezed Louis’ hand back and gave him an encouraging nod as one of the local radio DJs, who was hosting the concert, walked up to the mic to introduce the band.

“Alright everyone, welcome to the ‘Summer Nights’ concert series. Tonight we’re featuring a local act; a band that’s become pretty popular in the Santa Monica scene. Put your hands together for SEAFRONT!”

Louis looked across the stage at Steve who grinned encouragingly. All four friends started walking out onto the stage and it wasn’t until Louis had taken several steps that he realized he was still holding Ed’s hand. He turned to Ed and they shared a laugh, before Ed dropped his hand and he went to take his place on the stage and pick up his guitar. Louis made his way to the front of the stage and gripped the microphone, adjusting it a little lower and trying to keep his hands from shaking. Louis said a quick thank you into the mic to the crowd, which got some people cheering. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them and looked out into the crowd he immediately saw him mom. She was standing holding Ernie on her hip, while Dan stood behind her with Doris sitting on his shoulder. Louis’ other four sisters were also standing on either side of their parents and Louis almost felt tears of happiness prick his eyes. He blinked them back and smiled wide instead; his mother’s presence was giving him the strength he needed.

“Hi we’re Seafront. We’re starting out with a song that’s dedicated to my mother Johannah, and really to all of the moms out there that make you realize how strong you really are. Thanks mom!”

With that, Louis turned and nodded to his three friends. Ed started playing this cool, guitar entrance and Steve immediately came in with some dropped beats and electronic samples that sound a little ethereal, while Niall’s bass rolled out a steady beat. Louis started singing and immediately got caught up in the melody, completely forgetting all about the scary crowd.

_Wish that you could build a time machine,_

_So you could see, the things no one can see,_

_Feels like you’re standing on the edge,_

_Looking at the stars, and wishing you were them._

_Whaddya do when a chapter ends?_

_Do you close the book, and never read it again?_

_Where do you go when your story’s done?_

_You can be who you were, or who you’ll become._

_Oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh, if it all goes wrong,_

_Oh Oh oh, oh oh oh oh, darling just hold on…_

_The sun goes down, and it comes back up,_

_The world it turns no matter what._

_Oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh, if it all goes wrong._

_Darling just hold on…_

By the end of the song, the entire crowd was on their feet cheering and hooting; the applause drowning out all other sound for Louis and the guys. He looked out into the crowd and saw both his mom and Steve’s, crying and clapping their hands in delight and support. Louis turned towards Steve to make sure he’d seen them and find Steve crying as well. There were also tears in Ed and Niall’s eyes and at this rate, Louis wasn’t sure he wasn’t going to break down and cry too, so he quickly clapped his hands together and gave his best friend a nod which Steve responded to by starting the drum intro to their next song.

The rest of the show goes so well that Louis isn’t sure he hasn’t dreamt the whole thing. Just as they’re winding up, and Louis has introduced everyone on stage and announced that they’ve only got one more song to play, a voice coming from the crowd just to the left of the stage hollers out, “You better be playing my favorite song!” Louis looks down and smiles when he sees that the comment was shouted by Harry, who has his dimples on display in a wide grin.

“Your favorite? And just what song would that be?” Louis smirks with a wink.

“Oh you know the one.” Harry shouts back sassily.

“Yeah, I think I do.” Louis admits and smiles again at Harry. Ed gives a cough behind him and Louis realizes that he should probably stop flirting with Harry and start singing, so he looks up and out at the rest of the crowd and says, “Okay folks, this is for our Number One Fan.”

_Well sometimes I go out by myself, and I look across the water,_

_And I think of all the things, what you’re doing, and in my head I paint a picture…_

*****************************************************************

Afterwards, when all of the congratulations have been given, hugs have been received, hands have been shaken, contact information exchanged, business meetings arranged, and instruments and equipment have been loaded back into Niall’s truck, the guys and their families and friends all headed to The Wayfarer to celebrate. Rusty had closed the place for the evening so that he and all of the staff could go see the guys perform, so as they all settled in at the various tables and booths, there weren’t that many regular customers in the bar besides the 40 or so people that had made their way from the pier stage.

Congratulatory beers and cocktails were passed around, and as Louis took a sip of some kind of amber ale, he looked around the table at all of the faces of the people he loved, and realized that although he was happier in that moment than he’d probably ever been, he also knew that he needed to finally make real changes in his life to be even happier. Louis leaned into Steve who was sitting next to him and whispered, “I’m so glad you’re my best friend. And I want you to know that I’ll start looking for a new place to live next week, so that you and Tiernon can have the bungalow.”

Steve, whose right arm was currently draped across Tiernon’s shoulders, turned fully towards Louis and pulled Tiernon into the conversation as well.

“Lou, wait. We were going to tell you this at dinner next week; T and I had a whole plan, but I guess we should tell you now. Uncle Marc is giving me, well, me and Tiernon, the bungalow as a wedding present. But we don’t want to live in it, at least not right now, so I’m giving it to you. Well, you know, not _giving it_ , but letting you live there.” Steve saw Louis start to shake his head in disbelief and continued on. “And before you even ask, I’m not letting you pay me rent; you’ll just have to take care of the utilities and upkeep. So maybe you can finally turn one of the bedrooms into an office or that music room that you’ve always wanted. And this way you’ll have some extra money to help with finishing school.” Steve paused, when Tiernon reached over him and gently laid her hand on Louis’ arm.

“Louis, I want Steve and me to find a place of our own to buy. Maybe further north and away from the beach. I want to be closer to the hills for hikes, and I want a bigger yard to maybe plant a vegetable garden and I want to get a dog.” At the mention of the dog, Tiernon turned to Steve with a pleading pout on her face, but Louis’ face showed concern and shock.

“A dog?  What about Smoky? You can’t move him into a new place and put him with a dog! That’s too much change for my boy to take! And about the rent, I can certainly pay my share with what I make. Sure it might mean picking up more hours or another part time job, or hell, finding another roommate, but I don’t want you taking care of me anymore, Steve. It’s time for me to grow up a little.” Louis blew out a breath and then took a swig of his beer.

“Well, that’s the other thing we needed to talk to you about, and one of the reasons I’m hoping you’ll stay on at the bungalow and use your money for school...” Steve turned to Tiernon for a second before readdressing Louis. “We can’t take Smoky Lonesome with us. T’s just too allergic, and yeah, she really wants a dog. So can Smoky stay with you? He’s become more your cat than mine anyway over these last couple of years.” Steve rushed this request out as if Louis was going to refuse it.

“I get to keep Smoky?! Oh man, what a relief. I didn’t want to admit how fucking fond I’ve become of that damn cat. I was dreading moving out and leaving him behind. Do you mean it? Can I really keep him?”

“He’s yours, buddy. Seriously Lou, Smoky’s been yours for a while now.  He sleeps with you and follows you around the house; probably because you feed him and take care of him more than I have. Even if Tiernon wasn’t allergic, there’s no way that I could take him away from you.”

Louis smiled at this and threw his arms around Steve, trying to pull Tiernon into the hug too. “I love you guys  so much.” When Louis pulled back he had tears in his eyes, and as if she had some kind of motherly intuition, Jay turned around from the conversation that she’d been having with Niall’s mom, and noticed his teary eyes right away.

“Steve my love, what are you saying to my dear son that’s making him cry? I never get to go out to a bar by myself anymore, and I’m enjoying a night off without any of my young children, but am I going to have to step in here and box your ears for hurting my son?” She said this in a jovial voice so that Steve knew she was kidding.

“Mom, they’re happy tears. This whole surreal night has just made me extra emotional I guess.” Louis explained.

Jay smiled and winked at both of her boys, and turned around again to continue her other conversation. Steve and Tiernon stood up from the table and headed towards the bar, and Louis sat back and rested his head on the back of the banquette seat. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath; maybe everything would be okay after all. He opened his eyes again just as a large group of people walked into the bar. Louis noticed Harry immediately and returned a smile to him as Harry’s face lit up when he saw Louis. Harry excused himself from his friends and came over to Louis.

“Hi. You guys were amazing tonight. I was so happy when I heard that you were going to be the replacement act for tonight. They couldn’t have made a better choice.”

“Thanks, Harry. It was cool seeing you in the audience. It felt good to have some of our loyal fans there to help cheer us on. We needed the support; it really helped with our nerves. Or at least mine.” Louis felt himself blushing against his will and threw his hand out indicating that Harry should take a seat.

“I wouldn’t have missed your big break for anything in the world, Louis.” Harry reached out and placed his hand on top of the one Louis had resting on the table. Louis felt the warmth from Harry’s hand and reveled in it for a few seconds before replying.

“I’ve gotta be honest; seeing you in particular made me especially happy tonight.” Louis looked up at Harry nervously from under his eyelashes.

“Well that’s good, because I don’t really go to see Seafront for Ed, Steve or Niall.” Harry flirted back, smiling a lopsided smile that made his left dimple pop.

“Hey, the next few weeks for me are going to be crazy. I’m starting a full load at school this semester and there’s a bunch of stuff I have to take care of, and who knows what tonight’s performance is going to lead to but, and I don’t even really know anything about you or what you do, so you might not even have time but, would like to go out some time with me? Like for a drink one night? Although I don’t think I’ve ever seen you drinking, so maybe that’s not your thing. So coffee maybe? Or dinner, I guess? Sorry, I…”,

Harry interrupted Louis’ nervous rambling. “I’d love to go on a date with you, Louis. Anything. And I don’t mind waiting for a bit longer; I mean, I’ve waited this long for you to finally catch on and ask me out. What’s a few more weeks?” Harry smirked and squeezed Louis’ hand again.

Louis felt himself blush from his cheeks to his collarbones and let out a nervous laugh. “Okay. Um...that’s awesome...I mean, cool. So, coffee? And then maybe dinner afterwards?”

“That sounds perfect. I know this great little coffee shop. Excellent coffee, and the baristas are really cute too. Especially this one guy with beautiful blue eyes and this killer smile.” Harry teased, and leaned in closer to Louis. All Louis could do was laugh warmly and lean in closer to Harry for the rest of the evening.

* * *

**October -**

Louis rode his skateboard down his street admiring the various ways people had decorated their houses and apartments for Halloween. Mrs. Johnson a few doors down, had especially gone all out this year; her lawn was filled with fake tombstones and her porch had dancing skeletons all along the railing. As Louis rode up to his own front gate, he smiled at the two simple jack-o-lanterns that sat on his front steps, with their carved out toothless smiles that would be lit up from the inside by votive candles, once Louis lit them. He unlocked the front door and stepped inside, turning on the outside porch light and placing his skateboard in the bin that he’d built in Niall’s garage to hold all of his boards. Louis had just toed off his shoes when Smoky Lonesome came bounding out of the kitchen to greet him.

“Hi Smoky. How’s my sweet boy?” Louis crouched down and rubbed and scratched behind Smoky’s ears. Turns out Steve was right about the big, gray fluffball currently purring and rubbing his head against Louis’ knee; Smoky had fully become Louis’ cat and he didn’t even seem to miss Steve all that much. Louis and Smoky were doing just fine on their own in the cottage. “Aren’t we, Smoky? We’re doing great just you and me.” Louis petted the cat one more time before moving into the kitchen to get started on dinner preparations.

If Louis was honest, he missed Steve like hell. Even though he and Tiernon had only moved 30 minutes north, and Louis of course saw Steve all the time for band practice and their performances, which had been increasing in both number and venue size thanks to the Twilight Pier show, it still felt to Louis as if a large Steve-shaped chunk was missing from his body. Louis tried to fill that chunk with school, work, and Harry, whom he had been dating for a little over a month, but Louis still needed his Steve fix. They had resorted to daily texts to stay up on each other’s lives on a minute to minute basis. Louis got out his phone and sent a text to Steve right then.

 **_Lou:_ ** What the hell is chimichurri sauce and how the hell do you make it?

 **_Steve-O:_ ** Are you at Trivia Night at Fredo’s trying to cheat again?

 **_Lou:_ ** No! I’m serious. Harry’s coming over for dinner and I said that I’d make him anything he wanted and he asked for grilled steaks with something called chimichurros or something?

 **_Steve-O:_ ** Chimichurri is a South American condiment. It’s made with parsley, cilantro, garlic and olive oil

I think that’s it? Maybe some lime or lemon? Look it up dumbass!

 **_Lou:_ ** Hey! F off! I thought you might know some special recipe. I want to impress him. Help me Steve!

 **_Steve-O:_ ** ok ok I’ll ask T if she knows of a good recipe and text you the deets or send you a link to a recipe.

That it? Need me to turn on the grill for you? Or tell you what to wear? How to do your hair?

 **_Lou:_ ** hardee har har No thank you! but yes please send me the recipe. I have everything you named off in the

refrigerator surprisingly, but if it calls for anything else I’ll have to go to the store again which NO

 **_Steve-O:_ ** Ok I’ll send it your way. And wear your black skinny jeans that show off your ass!

 **_Lou:_ ** Steve….

 **_Steve-O:_ ** What?? It’s your best feature!

 ** _Lou:_** Bye

 **_Steve-O:_ ** Fine. But text me later and tell me how everything went.

 **_Steve-O:_ ** Unless it goes SO well that you’re occupied with “other” things later ;)

 ** _Lou:_** Goodnight, perv!

An hour later Harry arrived to find Louis cursing up a storm and holding his left hand in the air while a small amount of blood flowed down his pointer finger.

“Louis! What happened?!” Harry immediately went into nurse mode, grabbing a clean dish towel and wrapping it around Louis’ injured hand.

“I cut my damn finger chopping cilantro! Which by the way smells like soapy feet. So gross. I thought I liked cilantro.”

“Oh my gosh! Are you making chimichurri for me? That’s so sweet! When I said I wanted it with my steak, I thought you would buy a jar of it or something. I never expected homemade.” Harry leaned in and gave Louis a soft kiss on his cheek.

Louis smiled and nodded his head, completely endeared. “Well shoot, if I’d known you could buy a jar of it, I wouldn’t have practically whacked my hand off trying to make it.” Louis chided, but couldn’t suppress his smile, so Harry knew he was just teasing.

“Well thank you, Lou.” Harry kissed him again. “How about I finish making the sauce, you go clean and bandage your cut. You’ll be on steak duty and I’ll take care of the rest. Oh, and I brought dessert; blackberry pie.”

Louis stepped next to Harry as he took over cutting the cilantro and parsley, and thanked him with a kiss. “Thanks, you’re the best. How’d I get so lucky?”

Harry only blushed in reply.

Later that evening after a delicious dinner of steaks grilled to perfection accompanied by the wonderful chimichurri sauce that Louis ended up loving despite the cilantro, and with a salad that Louis had made using vegetables from his mother’s garden, Harry and Louis had made their way out to the porch to sit on the swing with glasses of wine, wrapped up in the blanket that Steve’s mom had crocheted. Smoky came out to join them, jumping up on Harry’s lap and settling in between them so that his feet were on Harry’s thigh and his head was resting on Louis’. Louis sat there with his one arm around his boyfriend, and his other petting his cat and relished in the feeling of contentment that filled his body. He couldn’t believe where his life was now compared to just a few months ago. Everything had fallen into place for him, just like Steve had always said it would. All Louis had needed to do was hold on for something great.

 

_FIN_

 


End file.
